Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

I’ve had the second Transformers movie for quite a while but it has been fairly low down on my to-watch list. With the third movie in the franchise now out I thought I’d give it a go to see if it’s as bad as the reviews suggest. It is.

The first Transformers movie was passable, just. But once you’ve seen cars turn into robots the novelty soon wears off. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is basically Transformers 1, just louder and with even more robots hitting each other. Thirty minutes in and I was already forcing myself to stay awake.

When there were actual human beings on screen having a conversation, it wasn’t too bad, but as soon as it switched again to yet another action scene it quickly lost me.

The problem with the big spectacle action set pieces is that they’re 90% CG. Yes, CG has come a long way in the last few years but it’s still not anywhere near realistic. Go back and look at a spectacular action scene shot before CG, such as the train crash near the beginning of The Fugitive. A lot of money way spent on that scene and it really is breathtaking and realistic - because it uses real, tangible objects. CG just doesn’t have the depth. It’s like watching a computer game.

Michael Bay publicly admitted that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was below even his own poor par (his exact words were "When I look back at it, that was crap”). Apparently that was after Shia LaBeouf declared that he "wasn't impressed with what we did”.

I really don’t know if I can be bothered to watch the next one.